Recap – “Marvel’s Storyboards” Takes the Stage with Comedian Sasheer Zamata

The second season of Marvel’s Storyboards, the web series available on the Marvel Entertainment YouTube channel, continued today with comedian and Saturday Night Live cast member Sasheer Zamata as the guest.

Marvel executive VP, creative director Joe Quesada introduces the episode by explaining that, when Zamata takes the stage, she doesn’t just tell jokes, she tells stories.

He meets with Zamata in New York at a pizza shop to talk about her work. They first discuss her recent stand-up special titled “Pizza Mind.” She explains that when doing stand-up, you’re revealing a part of yourself and she doesn’t know how you could possibly do that without telling a story.

Zamata goes on to explain that her parents are both big fans of Star Trek and that her name actually came from the sci-fi classic. She goes on to talk about how her father was also a big fan of comic books and she would go with him to comic shops. She tells Quesada that her favorite hero was always Spider-Man and if she could have any superpower, she would choose teleportation.

They also talk a bit about Marvel Studios’ Black Panther and how much Zamata felt that it meant to the black community. She explains that it was cool for her to see a community so technologically advanced as opposed to what is typically shown in the media.

Quesada then joins the audience for Zamata’s stand-up show, of which we get to see some very funny clips. After the show, the two reconvene and Quesada actually takes the stage to tell a few jokes of his own. Spoiler alert: they don’t land. Luckily for Quesada, he already has a pretty great job.

As they sit down to talk again, Zamata explains that doing stand-up is like taking off a mask to reveal herself to the audience. They then get onto the topic of collaboration and find that the two professions are fairly similar in that aspect. Zamata explains that she will talk to comedian friends about what she’s working on and they’ll sometimes give her ideas, while Quesada explains that writers will come together to flesh out ideas and interweave their stories.

Finally, Zamata offers some advice for young comedians: know that you’re going to fail. She urges them to write a lot and get on stage a lot and just know that there’s going to be rejection but eventually it will change.

You can watch the full episode of Marvel’s Storyboards below: